Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama by Walter W. Greg

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It appears to me, therefore, that Carducci has erred in not taking a
sufficiently broad view of the lines on which literary development
proceeds; and also, more specifically, in failing to recognize the
importance of the distinction between the ordinary and the dramatic
eclogue. This distinction, though on the scanty evidence extant it is
extremely hard to draw it with any degree of certainty, appears to me a
vital point in the history of the species. The value of Carducci's work
lies in his insistence on the influence of the regular drama, to which,
perhaps on account of its very obviousness, Rossi had failed to attach
sufficient importance; in his directing attention to the local Ferrarese
tradition; in the admirable energy and patience with which he has
collected all available evidence; and in his reprinting the interesting
pastoral fragment of Giraldi Cintio. For these he deserves the warmest
thanks of all students of Italian literature; for my own part I need only
refer the reader to the footnotes to the following pages as indicating in
some measure the extent of my indebtedness[371].

The theatrical tendency first exhibited itself in the mere recitation of
a dialogue in character, and the earliest examples of these _ecloghe
rappresentative_ are identical in form with those written merely for
literary circulation. For the dates of these external evidence
unfortunately fails us almost entirely, but a fairly well-marked sequence
may be established on the grounds of internal development. Roughly, they
must fall within a few years of the close of the fifteenth century, say
between 1480 and 1510. They are commonly of an allegorical nature,
containing allusions to real persons, and are for the most part composed
in _terza rima_, diversified in the more complex examples by the
introduction of octaves and lyrical measures[372]. Of this primitive form
is a poem by the Genoese Baldassare Taccone, bearing the superscription
'Ecloga pastorale rapresentata nel Convivio dell' III. Sig'r. Io. Adorno,
nella quale si celebra l' amor del Co. di Cayace [Francesco Sanseverino] e
di M. Chiara di Marino nuncupata la Castagnini[373].' This piece, in which
the characters represent real persons, is a mere dialogue without any
semblance of action. Aminta questions his fellow-shepherd Fileno as to the
cause of his melancholy, and learns that it arises from his hopeless
passion for a certain cruel nymph. His offer to undertake his friend's
cure is met with the declaration, that of the two death were preferable.
Similar in simplicity of construction is another poem, the work of
Serafino Aquilano, which deals with the corruption of the Church, and was
performed at Rome during the carnival of 1490[374]. An advance in
dramatization is made by an eclogue of Galeotto Del Carretto's, written in
1492, in honour of the newly elected Alexander VI, in that one character
enters upon the scene after the other has been discoursing for some time;
while another, the work of Gualtiero Sanvitale, contains three speakers,
of whom one enters towards the close, and is called upon to decide between
the other two. This arbiter is none other than Lodovico Sforza
himself[375]. So far the eclogues have all been in Sannazzaro's _terza
rima_. A wider range of metrical effect, including not only terzines both
_sdrucciole_ and _piane_, but also hendecasyllables with internal rime and
a _canzone_, and at the same time a more dramatic treatment, is found in
another eclogue of Aquilano's[376]. In this Palemone sends his herdsman
Silvano to inspect his flocks after a stormy night. The herdsman meets
Ircano in a melancholy mood, who when questioned endeavours to hide the
nature of his grief by feigning that he has lost his flock in the storm.
At that moment, however, the real cause of his sorrow enters in the shape
of a nymph, and Ircano leaves Silvano in order to follow her with prayers
and supplications. Silvano endeavours to dissuade him from his love, but
meets with the usual want of success. In the case of this piece, as also
of the two preceding ones, we have no direct evidence of any
representation, but all three, and especially the last, have the
appearance of being composed for recitation. Another piece, exhibiting an
advance in complexity of dramatic structure, is an 'ecloga overo
pasturale,' a disputation on love by Bernardo Bellincioni[377], apparently
in some way connected with Genoa, in the course of which five characters,
probably representing actual personages, though we lack external evidence,
forgather upon the stage. The versification again exhibits novel features,
the piece being for the most part in _ottava rima_ with the introduction
of _settenari_ couplets. In the former we may perhaps see the influence of
the _Orfeo_, or possibly of the old _sacre rappresentationi_ themselves.
In 1506 the court of Urbino witnessed the eclogue composed and recited by
Baldassare Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga[378]. It also belongs to the
octave group, and is diversified with a canzonet. Dramatically the piece
is somewhat of a retrogression, but it is interesting from the characters
introduced in pastoral guise. Thus in Iola and Dameta we may see
Castiglione and his fellow author; Tirsi, who gives his name to the poem,
is a stranger shepherd attracted by reports of the court; while among the
characters mentioned are discernible Bembo and the Duchess Elizabeth. At
this point may be mentioned a somewhat similar eclogue found in a Spanish
romance of about 1512, entitled _Cuestion de amor_, descriptive of the
Hispano-Neapolitan society of the time. The eclogue, which is clearly
modelled on the Italian examples, contains five characters, and is
supposed to represent the love affairs of real personages[379]. Two
so-called 'commedie pastorali,' from which Stiefel hoped for useful
evidence, prove on inspection to be medleys of pastoral amours exhibiting
little advance in dramatization, though interesting as showing traces of
the influence of the not yet fully developed 'rustic' eclogue. They are
composed throughout in _terza rima_ without any division into acts or
scenes, and are the work of one Alessandro Caperano of Faenza, thus
hailing, like the later _Amaranta_, from the Romagna[380]. In 1517 we find
a fantastic pastoral entitled _Pulicane,_ written in octaves by Piero
Antonio Legacci dello Stricca, a Sienese, who was also the author of
several rustic pieces, in which is introduced a monster half dog and half
man. Another work by the same, again in octaves, and entitled _Cicro_,
appeared in 1538. Another piece mentioned by Stiefel as likely to throw
light on the development of the dramatic pastoral is the 'Ecloga di
amicizia' of Bastiano di Francesco, or Bastiano 'the
flax-dresser'(_linaiuolo_), also of Siena, which was first printed in
1523. It turns out, however, to be a decidedly primitive composition in
_terza rima_, with a certain slightly satirical colouring[381].

If the texts that have survived are somewhat scanty, there is good reason
to believe that they form but a small portion of the eclogues actually
represented at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth
centuries. Thus we find a show, of the nature of which it is not
altogether easy to judge, recorded in a letter by a certain Floriano
Dulfo, written from Bologna in July, 1496[382]. It appears to have been a
composition of some length, pastoral only in part, supernatural in others,
but belonging on the whole rather to the cycle of chivalresque romance
than of classical mythology. In Act I an astrologer announces the birth of
a giant, who in Act II is represented as persecuting the shepherds. Acts
III and IV are occupied by various complaints on his account In Act V,
called by Dulfo 'la ultima comedia, overo egloga,' the giant carries off a
nymph while she is gathering flowers; the shepherds, however, come to her
rescue and restore her to her lover. This incident, reminiscent possibly
of the rape of Proserpine, tends to connect the piece with the
mythological tradition. So far as can be gathered, the verse appears to
have been _ottava rima_ with the introduction of lyrical passages. Again,
we know that the representation of eclogues formed part of the festivities
at the marriage of Lucrezia Borgia with Giovanni Sforza in 1493, and again
in 1502, when she espoused Alfonzo d' Este. In 1508 the carnival shows at
Ferrara included three eclogues, the work respectively of Ercolo Pio,
Antonio dall' Ongano. and Antonio Tebaldeo[383]. At Venice we have note of
similar performances, and even find _ecloghe_ mentioned among the forms of
dramatic spectacle recognized by the laws of the state. I may also call
attention in this connexion, and as illustrating the habituai introduction
of acted eclogues in all forms of festival, to the occurrence of such a
performance in a chivalrous romance by Cassio da Narni, entitled _La morte
del Danese_[384]. The piece is, however, of the most primitive form, and
must not be taken as typical of its date, just as the masques introduced
into the plays of the Elizabethan drama are commonly of a far simpler
order than actually represented at court. It may also not improbably have
been influenced by the more popular form of rustic shows, as its
description as a 'festa in atti rusticali' would seem to indicate.

Meanwhile the rustic eclogue was developing upon lines of its own, though
rather in arrear of the courtly variety. In 1508 we find a piece in _terza
rima_, exhibiting traces of Paduan dialect, composed or transcribed by one
Cesare Nappi of Bologna, in which no less than fourteen 'villani' appear
with their sweethearts to honour the feast of San Pancrazio[385]. Eating
and dancing form the mainstay of the composition, and since the female
characters are described but do not speak, it may be questioned whether
the piece was intended for representation. Not till five years later have
we any evidence of a rustic eclogue forming part of an actual show. In
1513, Giuliano de' Medici was at Rome, and in the entertainment provided
at the Capitol on the occasion of his receiving the freedom of the city
was included an eclogue by a certain 'Blosio,' otherwise Biagio Pallai
delia Sabina, of the Roman Academy. The argument alone has come down to
us. A rustic, who has first suffered at the hands of the foreign soldiers
then overrunning Italy, and has afterwards been plundered by the sharper
citizens of Rome, meets a friend with whom it has fared similarly, and the
two determine to seek justice of the Conservators, as a last chance before
retiring to live among the Turks, since a man may not abide in peace in a
Christian land. They find the Capitol _en fete_, and the piece ends with a
song in praise of Giuliano and Leo X[386]. Of the same year is the 'Egloga
pastorale di Justitia,' the earliest extant specimen of the rustic
dramatic eclogue proper. It is a satirical piece concerning a countryman,
who fails to obtain justice because he is poor. He at last appeals to the
king himself, but is again repulsed because he is accompanied by Truth in
place of Adulation[387]. This form of composition, recalling as it does
the allegories of Langland and other satirists of the middle ages, differs
widely from that usually found in the courtly eclogues, nor is it typical
of rustic representations. Again, to the same year, 1513, belongs an
eclogue in rustic speech and Bellunese dialect, by Bartolommeo Cavassico,
which like the Roman show turns upon the horrors of the war which had been
devastating the country since 1508. Recollections of the 'tagliata di
Cadore[388]' blend incongruously with fauns, nymphs, bears, pelicans, and
wild men of the woods, to form a whole which appears to be of a decidedly
burlesque character. The distribution, however, of these rustic eclogues
never appears to have been very wide, and in later times they were chiefly
confined to the representations of the famous Congrega dei Rozzi at Siena,
though the activity of this society extended, it is true, far beyond the
limits of its Tuscan home. Most of these representations, at any rate in
the earlier years with which we are concerned, were short realistic farces
of low life composed in dialectal verse. Some of the cleverest are by
Francesco Berni, better known for his obscene _capitoli_ and his
_rifacimento_ of Boiardo's _Orlando_, and appeared between 1537 and 1567;
while in later days the kind attained its highest perfection in the work
of Michelangelo Buonarroti the younger, whose _Tancia_ originally appeared
in 1612[389].

It may be questioned to what extent these rustic shows influenced the
development of the pastoral eclogue. Their recognition as a dramatic form
was subsequent to that of the _ecloga rappresentativa_, and no element
traceable to their influence can be shown to exist in the dramatic
pastoral as finally evolved. On the other hand, we do undoubtedly meet
with incidents and characters in the courtly shows which appear to belong
to the style of the popular burlesque. A point of contact between the two
traditions may be found in the _commedie maggiaiuole_, a sort of May-day
shows also represented by the Rozzi, but of a more idealized character
than the rustic drama proper. They may, indeed, be regarded as to some
extent at least a parody of the two kinds--the courtly and the popular
pastoral--since by combining the two each was made the foil and criticism
of the other. Nymphs and shepherds appear as in the pastoral eclogues, but
their loves are interrupted by the incursion of boisterous rustics, who
substitute the unchastened instincts and brute force of half-savage boors
for the delicate wooing and sentimentality of their rivals.

* * * * *

We return to the development of the dramatic eclogue in a work of some
importance as marking an advance both in dramatic construction and
versification. _I due pellegrini[390]_, written not later than 1528, when
the author, Luigi Tansillo, was a youth of sixteen or seventeen, was
doubtless produced on some occasion before the court of the Orsini, at
Nola, near Naples. It was revived with great pomp ten years later at
Messina, when Don Garcia de Toledo, commander of the Neapolitan fleet,
entertained Antonia Cardona, daughter of the Count of Colisano, for whose
hand he was a suitor[391]. Two shepherds, pilgrims of love, bereft of the
objects of their affection, the one through death, the other through
inconstancy, meet in a forest and reason of the comparative hardness of
their lots. Unable to decide the question, they each resolve to bear the
strongest possible witness to the depth of their affliction by putting an
end to their lives. At this moment, however, the voice of the dead
mistress is heard from a neighbouring tree, persuading them to relinquish
their intentions, reconciling them once more with the world and life, and
directing them to join the festivities in the city of Nola. Here for the
first time we meet with a pastoral composition of some length pretending
to a dramatic solution, and contrasting with the stationary character of
most of the eclogues we have been examining in that the change of purpose
among the actors constitutes a sort of [Greek: peripe/teia], or
_rivolgimento_. The piece is likewise important from a metrical point of
view, since it not only contains a free intermixture of _ottava_ and
_terza rima_, and hendecasyllables with _rimalmezzo_, a favourite verse
form in certain kinds of composition[392], but likewise foreshadows, in
its mingling of freely riming hendecasyllables with _settenari_, the
peculiar measures of the pastoral drama proper. _I due pellegrini_ was
not, however, an altogether original composition. In 1525 had appeared a
work by the Neapolitan Marco Antonio Epicuro de' Marsi, styled in the
original edition 'dialogo di tre ciechi,' and in later reprints
'tragi-commedia intitulata _Cecaria_[393].' In this three blind men, one
blind with love, another with jealousy, the third with gazing too intently
on the sun-like beauty of his mistress, meet and determine to die
together. They fall in, however, with a priest of Amor, who sends them
back to their respective loves to be cured. It was this theme that
Tansillo arranged in pastoral form, borrowing even the metres of the
original, but it was just the element which justifies our including it
here that he added, and it is useless to seek in Epicuro's work the origin
of the form with which it was thus only accidentally associated.

A composition of some importance, dating from a period about two years
later than Tansillo's piece, is an 'ecloga pastorale' by the 'mestissimo
giovane' Luca di Lorenzo of Siena.[394] Two nymphs, by name Euridice and
Diversa, respectively seek and shun the delights of love. They meet a
_citto_--that is a _bambino_ in Sienese dialect--who proves to be none
other than Cupid himself, and rewards them according to their deserts,
Euridice obtaining the love of the courtly shepherd Orindio, while Diversa
is condemned to follow the rude and loveless Fantasia. The piece is
written in a mixture of _ottava_ and _terza rima_, with a variety of
lyrics introduced. The contrast between the loving and the careless
nymphs, and the episode of the latter being bound to a tree, appear to
anticipate the later pastoral; while the introduction of Cupid as a
dramatis persona carries one back to the mythological drama, and the
rustic characters connect the piece with the plays of the Rozzi. Another
composition of Tuscan origin is the _Lilia_, first printed in 1538, and
composed throughout in polished octaves.[395] It merely relates how the
shepherd Fileno courted the fair Lilia, a certain rustic element being
introduced in the persons of the herdsmen Crotolo and Tirso.

With the _Amaranta_ of Casalio we have been sufficiently concerned in the
text (p. 172). It was printed at Venice in 1538,[396] having probably been
written some years earlier. It is composed in _ottava_ and _terza rima_,
with the introduction of a canzonet, and marks an important advance on
previous work, not only in the nature of the plot, but in being divided
into acts and scenes. Sixteen years elapsed between the publication of
_Amaranta_ and the appearance of the regular pastoral drama in Beccari's
_Sacrifizio_. Some time ago Stiefel pointed out a considerable hiatus at
this point in Rossi's account, and mentioned certain works which might be
expected to fill it. These and others have since been examined by
Carducci, with the result that it is possible, at least partially, to
bridge the gap. The period proves to be one less of gradual evolution than
of conscious experiment. At least this is how I read the available
evidence.

Besides the _Cecaria_, mentioned above, Epicuro de' Marsi also left a
manuscript play entitled _Mirzia_, which he describes as a 'favola
boschereccia,' being thus the first to make use of the term later adopted
by Tasso.[397] The piece, which was written some ten years before the
author's death in 1555, leads us off into one of the numerous by-paths
into which the pastorals of this period were for ever wandering. Two
despised lovers, together with their friend Ottimo, witness unseen the
dances of Diana and the nymphs, on which occasion Ottimo falls in love
with the goddess herself. After passing through various plights, into
which they are led by their love of the careless nymphs, they all have
recourse to an oracle, whose predictions are fulfilled through a series of
violent metamorphoses. This mixture of mythology and magic is wholly
foreign to the spirit of the Arcadian drama, and the _Mirzia_ cannot any
more than the _Cecaria_ be regarded as the progenitor of that form. I may
mention incidentally that among the characters is a good-natured satyr,
who consoles Ottimo in his hopeless passion for Diana.

Another attempt at mingling the pastoral with the mythological drama, and
one which likewise exhibits a tendency to borrow from the rustic
compositions, is the Florentine 'commedia pastorale' first printed in 1545
under the title of _Silvia_.[398] The author calls himself Fileno
Addiacciato, from which it would appear that he was a member of the
pastoral academy of the Addiaccio, founded at Prato in 1539 by Agnolo
Firenzuola. The prologue relates how the first _archimandrita_ of the
academy, the title assumed by the president, here called Silvano, was
driven out by his followers because of certain innovations he made,
'Alzando i Rozzi e deprimendo i buoni.' This would seem to imply that the
head of the Addiacciati was expelled for evincing too particular an
interest in the Sienese society, a piece of literary gossip fairly borne
out by the little we know of the events which led up to Firenzuola's
departure from Prato. The prologue, indeed, speaks of Silvano as already
dead, which would appear to necessitate the placing of Firenzuola's death
earlier by three years than the accepted date. The inference, however, is
not necessary, since the expelled president might in his pastoral
character be represented as dead though still alive in the flesh. The play
itself, which is in five acts, and contains characters alike Olympian,
Arcadian, and rustic, besides a hermit and a slave, is composed in a
variety of metres--_terza rima_, octaves both _sdrucciole_ and _piane_,
and in the style alike of Poliziano and Lorenzo, hendecasyllables both
blank and with _rimalmezzo_, and lyrical stanzas. The plot itself is of
the simplest, and resembles that of the _Amaranta_. Through the sovereign
will of Venus and Cupid, Silvia and Panfilo love. A temporary
estrangement, brought about by the mischievous rustic Murrone and his
burlesque courting of Silvia, is set right by an opportune appearance of
Cupid just as the girl has determined on suicide, and the lovers are
united according to the Christian rite by the hermit, in the presence of
Cupid and Venus. What could be more complete?

The following year, 1546, saw the appearance in type of two eclogues,
_Erbusto_ and _Filena_, by a certain Giovanni Agostino Cazza or Caccia,
the founder of a pastoral academy at Novara, for whose diversion the
pieces were presumably composed.[399] The first of these, _Erbusto_, is in
three acts, and _terza rima_. The elderly Erbusto is the rival of Ameto in
the love of a shepherdess named Flora. The girl's affections are set on
the younger suitor, and after some complications she is discovered to be
Erbusto's own daughter, stolen as a baby during the war in Piedmont.
Similar recognitions, imitated from the Roman comedy, are of frequent
occurrence in the regular Italian drama, and are not uncommonly connected,
as here, with some actual event in contemporary history. The second piece,
_Filena_, runs to four acts, and has lyrical songs introduced into the
_terza rima_. It appears to be a sufficiently shameless and somewhat
formless farce, which, being quite alien from the spirit of the regular
pastoral, need not be examined in detail.

To the next few years belong a series of 'giocose moderne e facetissime
ecloghe pastorali,' by the Venetian Andrea Calmo, composed in
_endecasillabi sdruccioli sciolti_, and published in 1553.[400] They
introduce a number of dialects, suited to various personages; Arcadian
shepherds like Lucido, Silvano, and the rest; rustics with names such as
Gritolo di Burano, mythological figures, and a _satiro villan_ who speaks
Dalmatian. An advance in dramatization may perhaps be seen in the
introduction of a second pair of lovers, while the writer goes even
further than Beccari in the introduction of oracles (a point in which,
however, he had been anticipated by the author of _Mirzia_), and an echo
scene, a device of which Calmo's example is certainly of an elementary
character.

The most important, however, of the writers between Casalio and Beccari is
the well-known Ferrarese novelist Giovanbattista Giraldi, surnamed Cintio,
the author of the _Ecatommiti_, and of a number of tragedies on the
classical model. The first piece of his which claims our attention is a
_satira_ entitled _Egle_, which was privately performed at the author's
house in February, 1545, and again the following month in the presence of
Duke Ercole and his brother, the Cardinal Ippolito d' Este.[401] The play
is an avowed and solitary attempt to revive the 'satyric' drama of the
Greeks, a kind of which the _Cyclops_ of Euripides is the only extant
example. The action is simple. The rural demigods, fauns, satyrs, and the
like, having long sought the love of the nymphs of Diana in vain, enter,
at the suggestion of Egle the mistress of Silenus, upon a plan whereby
they may have the careless maidens in their power. They make a show of
leaving Arcadia in high dudgeon, abandoning their families of little fauns
and satyrs. On these the unwary maids take pity, and begin forthwith to
dance and play with them in the woods. The deceitful divinities, however,
have only hidden for a while, and when opportunity serves are placed by
Egle where they may surprise the nymphs at sport. They suddenly break
cover, follow and seize the flying girls, and are on the point of enjoying
the success of their plot when Diana intervenes, transforming her outraged
followers into trees, streams, and so forth. The metamorphosis is related
by Pan himself, who returns bearing in his hand a reed, all that is left
of his beloved Syrinx. Thus the piece may be regarded as a dramatization
of Sannazzaro's _Salices_, expanded by the free introduction of
mythological characters, and bears no connexion with the real nature of
pastoral, the life-blood of which, whether in the idyls of Theocritus, the
_Arcadia_ of Sannazzaro, or the _Aminta_ of Tasso, is primarily and
essentially human.